Chapter 2 - The Woman Beneath the Ashes
Elias grabbed his revolver and pulled Aayoka behind the remaining wall of the burned shelter.
“Stay down.”
“I can fight.”
“You can barely stand.”
Aayoka gave him a look suggesting she did not appreciate the distinction.
Another horse whinnied beyond the ridge.
Elias crouched beside the wall.
One rider?
Maybe two.
He listened.
Hooves struck stone.
Slowly.
Whoever approached was not trying to hide.
That could mean confidence.
Or stupidity.
Elias had learned never to depend on the second possibility.
He checked the revolver.
Four cartridges.
Not enough for a prolonged argument.
“Do you have a weapon?”
Aayoka pointed toward the ruins.
“My rifle was inside my brother's home.”
“Burned?”
“Yes.”
“Then stay here.”
She caught his wrist.
“Creed's men may return.”
“That's what I'm afraid of.”
Elias moved through the ruins, keeping low.
The rider emerged.
A thin man with a gray beard sat on a mule.
Elias recognized him.
The old prospector from the trading post.
The man who had warned him about the spring.
Elias lowered the revolver slightly.
The prospector stopped.
“Well.”
“You followed me?”
“No.”
The old man looked around.
His expression changed when he saw the devastation.
“Lord have mercy.”
Elias approached cautiously.
“What are you doing here?”
“Name's Amos Bell, since you never bothered asking before.”
“I remember.”
“Was looking for a man.”
“Creed?”
Amos stared at him.
“That name mean something to you?”
“Enough.”
Aayoka emerged from the ruins.
Amos removed his hat.
His expression carried genuine sorrow.
“Aayoka.”
She stiffened.
“You know him?” Elias asked.
“My grandfather traded with him.”
Amos dismounted.
“I knew your grandfather before either of you were born.”
Aayoka looked around the ruins.
“You weren't here.”
“No.”
“You knew men were coming?”
Amos's face tightened.
“No.”
She studied him before finally accepting the answer.
Amos approached one of the destroyed shelters.
“Creed did this?”
“Yes,” Aayoka said.
Amos cursed.
Elias's gaze sharpened.
“You know Creed too.”
“Everybody who survives long enough in this territory knows something about Silas Creed.”
“Then talk.”
Amos glanced at Elias.
“You first.”
Elias said nothing.
Amos pointed at his shoulder.
“You move that arm like a man who's been shot.”
“Plenty of men have.”
“And you looked ready to kill somebody when she said Creed's name.”
Elias's silence answered enough.
Amos sighed.
“Creed isn't just an outlaw anymore.”
“What is he?”
“Depends who you ask. Rancher. Contractor. Government scout. Supplier. Thief.”
Aayoka spoke bitterly.
“Murderer.”
“That too.”
Amos crouched beside wagon tracks crossing the settlement.
“He's been buying land through Red Mesa.”
Elias frowned.
“Why?”
“Railroad.”
That explained more than Elias wanted it to.
The Southern Pacific and smaller companies had been pushing lines and feeder routes across the territory. Water determined where camps could survive.
And water in Arizona was worth more than silver.
Elias looked north.
“The spring.”
Amos nodded.
“Now you're thinking.”
Aayoka's face hardened.
“He cannot own it.”
“Legally?” Amos asked. “Maybe not. But Creed doesn't need to own something if everyone else is dead.”
The words settled heavily.
Elias looked around.
“So the attack wasn't about rifles.”
“No,” Aayoka said. “It was about removing us.”
Amos pointed at the ground.
“There's more.”
He showed Elias the tracks.
Military horses used particular shoes.
These prints didn't match.
“Those weren't cavalry mounts,” Elias said.
“No.”
Aayoka nodded.
“I told you. Some wore uniforms.”
Creed had staged the attack.
If anyone investigated, blame would fall on the Army.
Elias suddenly understood why Creed had left no witnesses.
Except one.
He looked at Aayoka.
“We need to leave.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“They'll come back.”
“Then let them.”
“You have one injured arm and no rifle.”
“And you have four bullets.”
Elias glanced down.
“How do you know?”
“I counted when you opened the cylinder.”
Despite everything, he almost smiled.
“Fine. You're observant.”
“I survived.”
That silenced him.
Amos approached.
“There's an abandoned mission about twelve miles east. Walls still standing. Water nearby.”
Aayoka looked toward the ruins.
“My family is here.”
Elias understood.
Leaving meant accepting that the place was gone.
He lowered his voice.
“Creed wants you dead.”
“So?”
“So staying gives him what he wants.”
Aayoka's eyes flashed.
“You run from men who want you dead.”
The accusation landed perfectly.
Elias stared at her.
She had known him less than an hour.
Yet somehow she had found the wound beneath all the others.
“Yes,” he said.
“And are you free?”
“No.”
Aayoka looked surprised by his answer.
Elias holstered his gun.
“But I'm alive.”
A long silence followed.
Then Aayoka walked through the ruins.
She collected a turquoise necklace from the ashes.
A small knife.
A woven blanket.
Finally she stopped beside the burned frame of a shelter.
“My mother slept here.”
Elias stayed back.
Aayoka knelt.
She placed her hand against the blackened earth.
Her lips moved in words Elias did not understand.
He removed his hat.
Amos did the same.
When Aayoka returned, grief remained in her eyes, but something else had joined it.
Purpose.
“We go.”
They traveled east.
Aayoka rode behind Amos because Boone was already exhausted.
The sun sank.
Elias kept checking their back trail.
Near dusk he found tracks.
Three horses.
Fresh.
Following them.
He rode beside Amos.
“We have company.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
“Creed?”
“Probably.”
Aayoka heard.
“How far?”
“Maybe an hour.”
Amos looked ahead.
“We won't reach the mission before dark.”
Elias studied the canyon.
“Then we don't try.”
He led them into a narrow wash.
They hid the horses behind rocks.
Elias climbed a ridge.
Twenty minutes later he saw riders.
Three men.
One wore a blue cavalry coat.
Another carried a rifle.
The third made Elias's blood turn cold.
Vernon Pike.
The second man from the freight robbery.
Older.
Heavier.
But unmistakable.
Elias slid down the ridge.
“What?” Aayoka asked.
“I know one.”
“Creed?”
“No.”
“Friend?”
Elias gave a humorless smile.
“He helped Creed shoot me.”
Aayoka reached for her knife.
“No.”
“You said four bullets.”
“Three men.”
“Then enough.”
“That's not how gunfights work.”
She stepped closer.
“Maybe that is why you keep running.”
Elias stared at her.
Again.
Right into the wound.
He wanted to argue.
Instead he looked toward the ridge.
Pike had believed Elias dead for three years.
That was an advantage.
Maybe the only one they had.
Elias suddenly formed a plan.
“Amos, take the horses farther down the wash.”
“And you?”
“I'm going to let Vernon Pike see a ghost.”
Night descended quickly.
The three riders entered the wash.
Pike dismounted.
“Tracks end here.”
Another man cursed.
“They couldn't vanish.”
Pike crouched.
“Spread out.”
A stone rolled.
Pike looked up.
Elias stood on the ridge.
Moonlight caught his face.
For several seconds Pike simply stared.
“No.”
Elias smiled.
“Hello, Vernon.”
Pike stumbled backward.
“I saw you die.”
“You didn't wait long enough.”
The rifleman raised his weapon.
A rock struck him from the side.
Aayoka.
She had ignored Elias's instruction and climbed the opposite ridge.
The rifle discharged into the air.
Chaos erupted.
Elias fired once, striking the ground beside Pike's boot.
“Next one isn't a warning!”
Pike dove behind a boulder.
His companions scattered.
Amos released their horses from farther down the wash, sending the animals thundering through the darkness.
The men panicked.
Elias descended.
Pike tried to run.
Aayoka appeared ahead of him holding her knife.
Pike stopped.
Elias came from behind.
“Where's Creed?”
Pike laughed nervously.
“You're still wanted, Boon.”
“Where?”
“Red Mesa.”
“Why did he burn the village?”
Pike looked toward Aayoka.
Recognition crossed his face.
“You're supposed to be dead.”
Her knife rose.
Elias gently stopped her arm.
“Not yet.”
Pike sneered.
“You don't understand what Creed found.”
“The spring?”
Pike's smile disappeared.
That was confirmation enough.
“What does he want with it?”
Pike refused to answer.
Elias cocked the revolver.
Pike swallowed.
“Land.”
“Why that land?”
“Because there's more beneath it than water.”
Amos appeared.
“What?”
Pike laughed.
“You old fools really don't know.”
Aayoka stepped closer.
“Know what?”
Pike looked at her.
“Creed found something under your sacred ground.”
Elias felt a cold uneasiness.
“Gold?”
“Better.”
“What?”
Pike's grin returned.
“A reason men in Washington will pay him anything he asks.”
A gunshot exploded from the ridge.
Pike jerked.
He fell.
Elias dragged Aayoka behind a rock.
Another bullet struck stone.
A fourth rider.
Someone had followed Pike's group.
Elias fired toward the muzzle flash.
The unknown rider disappeared into darkness.
When they reached Pike, he was dying.
Elias crouched.
“Who shot you?”
Pike coughed.
“Creed... cleans up... mistakes.”
“What did he find?”
Pike's eyes moved toward Aayoka.
“Ask her... why her people guarded that spring.”
His breathing stopped.
Aayoka stood frozen.
Elias looked at her.
“You know something.”
“No.”
“Pike thought you did.”
“My grandfather told stories.”
“What stories?”
She looked toward the stars.
“About what sleeps beneath the water.”
Before Elias could ask more, Aayoka reached into Pike's coat.
She removed a folded paper.
A map.
On it was a rough drawing of the canyon.
The spring had been circled in red.
Beside it, Creed had written two words.
SECOND ENTRANCE.
Elias looked at Aayoka.
“Entrance to what?”
Aayoka's face had gone pale.
“To the place my grandfather told us never to open.”
And for the third time, the wind carried the woman's whisper.
Only now the words had changed.
May you like
Come back.
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